indo–asian news service
New Delhi, July 24: The Congress Monday attacked NDA’s Vice Presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu over issues of transparency and probity, alleging that the Telangana government had placed a direct order for purchase of vehicles with a company belonging to his son and had granted exemption from `2-crore charges to a trust in which his daughter was a managing trustee.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posed four questions to Naidu and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying it is mandatory for them to answer the queries as they have spoken of transparency, accountability and honesty.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often stated that there was zero tolerance for corruption and wrongdoing. Ramesh said the Telangana government had issued an order in June this year which “exempted the Swarna Bharat Trust of Naidu’s daughter from paying various charges amounting to more than `2 crore to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority”.
“Is it not a fact that such an exemption has no precedent and it has been done because his daughter is the managing trustee of the organisation,” Ramesh asked. Earlier in July 2014, the Telangana government had placed an order worth about `271 crore for the purchase of police vehicles from two companies — Harsha Toyota owned by Naidu’s son and Himanshu Motors owned by the son of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
“Is it not a fact that such an order was placed in contravention of all rules and without even floating a tender?” Ramesh asked.
